Looking at safaris online before flying off to Nairobi gave me sticker shock. It got so bad that, at one point, I thought US$2,000 for 6 nights of camping in a tent (where you provided your own sleeping bag) would be a good deal! And I was starting to panic. Even the budget Backpacker accommodations that offered safaris had tiered prices depending on the number of people, and the rates for one person were just outrageous!

In a bid for sanity, I started checking travel forums, many of which suggested that if you want a cheap safari, you should wait and book it when you arrive. I had concerns about having enough cash on hand to pay for a safari when I arrived (most cheap places do not take credit cards), but once I got to my senses, I realized I could also save a ton of money by joining an existing group when I got to Nairobi.

In the process, I learned a few things about how this works:

The Bottom of the Barrel Rates Are Roughly US$130 per person per day

In Kenya, the lowest you can reasonably expect to pay is $130 per person per day. This is what I paid and I actually had a pretty decent accommodation in safari-style tents just outside the national park (I visited Maasai Mara, Kenya’s most famous park). I shared with another member of my group, had a real bed and an en suite bathroom, though the camp only had generator power for 3 hours a night. It also included all meals (drinks excluded) and round trip transportation, as well as 4 safari drives.*

Why Are Safaris so Expensive?

The short answer is because they’re touristy. Also, entry fee for the national parks is astronomically high: US$80-90 per person per 24-hour period.

Where you Book Your Safari Matters!

I polled the other people in my group as to how much they paid for the same thing I had and I learned that we paid different prices! They had booked directly with the tour company, where I had booked through a hostel (Milimani Backpackers and Safari Center) and paid a couple of hundred dollars less!

Ask to Join a Group

Joining a group that’s ready to go is the best way to save money. Generally with the 4^th person the rates start to go down. I figured out what to ask for and when I called to book, I specially asked if I could join a group for the 3 day Maasai Mara trip (the most popular safari). Low and behold, they had a group leaving the very next day!

Don’t Book Too Many Days

Seeing animals is cool for the first time. Even the second and third time. But it does get old after a while. I’m glad I didn’t book more than my 3 days. It helped that my group was very lucky though… (more on that later)

*You Don’t Always Get What You Pay For…

Note that asterisk up there? My trip was advertised to have 4 game drives, but in fact I only had 2. The schedule included an evening drive on the day we arrived, a morning and evening drive the next day and an early morning drive on the third day. But here’s the thing….we arrived too late on the first day for a drive (the park closes at sundown). The driver told us he would make it up to us by giving us a full day the next day. We entered the park at 9am and left at 6pm. I wouldn’t exactly recommend a full day game drive as most of the animals lay low during the hot afternoon hours and we saw almost nothing between 2pm and 5pm. And driving around gets quite dull after a while. We did have another game drive the third morning at 6am, which turned out to be the best experience!

Another interesting thing happened here. Since the tickets are for 24 hours, the tour company got away with only paying one entry fee for each of rather than two… It wasn’t that big of a deal but it kind of rubbed me the wrong way and made me wonder if they got us there late on purpose.

It’s All About Luck

You aren’t guaranteed to see anything. Sure, you’ll see plenty of gazelles, zebras, giraffes and buffalos as they’re all a dime a dozen. But for the other “Big 5” (Lion, Elephant, Leopard, Buffalo, Rhinoceros) you really need a bit luck. My group was very lucky and we spotted all of the “Big 5” in the same day! Leopards are by far the hardest animals to spot and one jumped out right in front us!

The Drivers All Talk to Each Other

Our driver had a CB radio and all the drivers are in constant communication about animal movements. If your driver is good, they’ll hightail it over to the location of one of the “Big 5” and, provided your timing and position is good, you’ll see things just fine. Soon enough, there’s a swarm of cars surrounding an animal (they don’t seem to mind). So the company you go with isn’t likely to matter that much. That said, your drivers abilities to respond to calls and have keen eyes will make or break your experience.

The Roads Suck….Really!

Maasai Mara is the single most popular park in Kenya and yet the only way to get there is on a terrible road. And by terrible, I really mean TERRIBLE. It was easy going at first, as we descended into the majestic Great Rift Valley. But soon, our nice paved road turned into a dirt road for the last 50km or so. And soon that dirt road turned into…well, I don’t even know what you would call it. It was a private Ma’asai Road and to say it was unpaved was an understatement. It was, at times, like riding a roller coaster…on an obstacle course. What didn’t help was that the Maasai build in roadblocks so you have to pay a toll, or have to pay them to get you out! That’s why our drive took most of the day.

It Was an EPIC Experience

All that said, the safari was hands down the coolest part of my trip to East Africa. It’s all well and good to see animals in zoos at your home, but there’s nothing quite like seeing them in their natural habitat. Over here, a lioness keeps an eye on a pair of wildebeest on the opposite hill. Over there, a pregnant cheetah doesn’t have a care in the world and rolls around in the sun just like a house cat does. It was all so fascinating!

So if there’s one thing you simply must do in East Africa its go on safari! It may be expensive, but trust me… it’s worth it!

A mere two hours north of Dubai lies a part of the Sultanate of Oman that few people even know about. Detached from the rest of this spectacularly beautiful country, the Musandam Peninsula juts out into the Persian Gulf, creating the Strait of Hormuz. It’s through this very strait that much of the world’s oil makes its way to you and Iran is just a stone’s throw away.

But don’t let that scare you away! Sure, you may see a few smugglers going back and forth between Khasab, the capital of Musandam, and the Iranian island of Qeshm, but they’re nothing to fear. Come here for an escape from the mundane, artificial world of Dubai and soak in some truly jaw dropping natural scenery!

The Drive to Paradise

This section of my trip began in Dubai, where my plan all along was to pick up a rental car at Dubai Airport and drive myself a couple of hours north through the Emirates of Sharjah and Ras-al Khaimah (or RAK, as the cool kids like to write it). It was smooth sailing down a modern, 12-lane expressway. My little rental car would start beeping at me when I would pass 120km/h (roughly 74 MPH), though it was hard to keep up with the speed of traffic! Though I wouldn’t say the drivers were as crazy as they were in Iraq (the last country I rented a car in).

It was a pretty mundane drive. That is, until after that 12-lane expressway turned into a little 2-lane road climbing higher and higher into the hills. And as soon as I crossed the border into Oman, my jaw dropped. Suddenly, I had the Persian Gulf on my left and, on the right? Soaring cliffs!

It was seriously gorgeous you guys. I don’t think I stopped gasping at the beauty for the entire drive and I found myself pulling over every 5 minutes or so to take photos! There was something about having this breathtaking landscape all to myself. I saw almost nobody else on the road…that is, until I reached civilization in Khasab.

The “Norway of Arabia”

An otherwise sleepy town, Khasab doesn’t have a whole lot going on. Trade is the lifeblood of this city and its crowning tourist attraction lies at its port. There, you can board a traditional Omani wooden Dhow (boat) for a cruise into the surrounding fjords (inlet surrounded by high cliffs). It’s thanks to these that Khasab has earned the nickname of “The Norway of Arabia.” Here, I’ll show you on the map:

I took advantage of a half-day cruise to Telegraph Island and it was a bit hectic as I arrived at Khasab Port. There were many Dhows departing for many different cruises and you had to climb from one to another to reach the proper boat! Carpets lined the floor of the boat which you sat along, leaning against the sides. Soon enough, we were off!

As we left Khasab, the scenery only became more and more incredible! Along those soaring cliffs we saw isolated villages that are only accessible by boat. But we also saw something else…

Right after departure, the captain started “Dolphin hunting.” I had actually been warned about this when I left the UAE. The border guard advised me to “Enjoy the dolphins,” as he stamped me out! And soon enough, the dolphins were swarming! Seemingly everywhere we looked they were swimming around us, surfacing ever so briefly for air. As we began to proceed through the inlet, a couple of dolphins swam alongside us!

It was pretty magical! I had never seen dolphins in the wild before, and to be surrounded by all that majestic scenery? This was way better than anything Dubai could possibly dream up!

A trip up to Khasab was the perfect detour from Dubai and it really helped restore my sanity after a few days in all of its excess. I loved it and if you love natural beauty, you will too!

Practicalities

Transportation

I rented a car and drove myself to Khasab, though if you book ahead with a tour operator in Khasab, they may pick you up in Dubai and bring you up for the day. In order to bring a car into Oman, you have to buy Omani insurance. The rental car was quite expensive, at roughly US$72 per day (including insurance). I also had to buy an Omani visa at the border for 5 Omani Rial (US$13), though they charged me the equivalent in UAE Dirhams as there was not an ATM on site.

Accommodation

I stayed at the Khasab Hotel, which I booked through the Agoda app. It came out to be US$86 for one night. Khasab has very limited accommodation options.

Activities

Any travel agent or hotel in the city is happy to book you on half or full day Dhow Cruises that generally involve an opportunity for snorkeling. There are also 4WD trips and hikes into the surrounding landscape. I booked my half day trip from the hotel, which cost 15 Omani Rial (US$39).

You can also visit Khasab Fort, a 17th Century fortification built by the Portuguese. It contains a small museum about the history of the area, as well as some historic boats. Admission is .5 Omani Rial (US$1.40).

What About You?

Think this sounds like a cool detour from Dubai?

The last time I published on this site was in November 2015, where I told you about my time in Dubai. I even left you with a bit of a cliffhanger about going off to the Sultanate of Oman. And then I kind of just faded away…

I apologize for not finishing that story, but the truth is that I got burned out, something which was a long time coming. Blogging is much more work than it seems. Between writing, photos, and social media, it’s like having a job minus a salary. You may have noticed that before I faded away, I published less and less frequently. And after I stopped writing, it was nice to not feel the pressure of having to publish something. Consistency, they say, is the single most important part about blogging and that was always my greatest weakness.

Not only that, but I was jaded. I was jaded about what blogging had turned into. When I started in 2010, I felt like we were such a tight-knit community, something that had been declining as blogging became more popular. Suddenly, there were thousands of brand new bloggers who weren’t so interested in that community and just wanted to get free stuff. I was disenchanted.

All that said, ever since my break from blogging, I’ve realized that I kind of missed it. I missed having an outlet to share my stories. I missed connect ing with my readers. And I missed the community that my “class” of bloggers had become. Many stories I’d share amongst my friends ended with “that’d be a great story if I still had a blog.” “But you DO have a blog,” they would remind me! Indeed I do.

Even though I stopped writing, I haven’t stopped traveling. I spent New Years 2014-15 in Europe and I’ve actually just this weekend returned from my first trip to East Africa, where I spent a couple of weeks in Kenya and Zanzibar (off the coast of Tanzania). And next month I’ll head off to the Philippines for the first time, which I’m pretty stoked about (send me your tips if you’ve got them)!

Today, February 15, is the day that my little blog would turn 6. And I can’t think of a better day to announce that I’M BACK!

I’m ready to give this another shot and I hope that you’ll join me as I continue on my journey! Oh and about that time I left Dubai for Oman? You can read about that later this week!

Thanks to CouchSurfing, I learned that (surprise, surprise), there’s more to Dubai than meets the eye. I stayed with an Iranian ex-pat who had lived in Dubai for 14 years and didn’t speak a word of Arabic. In Dubai, you really don’t need to! Since ex-pats make up something like 80% of the population, English is the common tongue.

Staying in “old Dubai” (old being a relative term, at 42 years old), I was able to experience what is essentially a tale of two Dubais. Yes, there’s that ultramodern world of manmade islands stretching into the Persian Gulf. There’s that wonderland of luxury and superlatives. Everything is the world’s largest airport terminal (which I found to be rather gaudy), or the world’s largest mall (Dubai Mall), tallest building (Burj Khalifa), fastest elevators and highest shooting fountain (Dubai Fountain). Hell, I’m pretty sure we passed the self-proclaimed world’s largest sewer treatment plant at some point…

But there’s also a whole other side that tourists would rarely see. “I want to see how people live,” I told my host. After looking at me like I was a little crazy, he agreed to show me around “old Dubai” (more commonly known as Deira). We had to wait till after dark though as it was far, far too hot to do anything during the middle of the day. I was prepared for desert heat but I wasn’t prepared for the amazing amount of humidity that Dubai had, so suddenly those 107 degree Fahrenheit (41.5 degrees C) temperatures weren’t so bearable.

The life he showed me in “old Dubai” seemed pretty nondescript. It was filled Immigrants who had white-collar jobs and relatively comfortable lives. Dubai wasn’t cheap by any standards (my host paid about the equivalent for his Studio apartment that you would in New York City), but people seemed to be getting by. Of course, he didn’t show me the living conditions of the thousands of South Asian slaves who built the city and live in awful conditions with 8-12 people sharing one room.

He took me around to various commodity markets which weren’t all that interesting, that is until we hit the fish market. I’ve seen a lot of odd food around the world but nothing was quite as shocking as what lay before me. Roughly 100 sharks lying belly up on a concrete slab. One of them had its tongue hanging out. Another was literally in the process of giving birth, with the tail of a baby protruding from its body. What’s more is that it was 10pm and these sharks weren’t on ice… I could only imagine how they would all go to waste…

This thought of excess kind of sums up my view of Dubai. It’s a city that’s been built around gluttony. Yes, it’s cool to stare up at the tallest building in the world. And yes, it’s kind of cool to see the dreamlike architecture. But at the same time it all kind of feels like a waste. Dubai is undoubtedly a playground for the rich, at the expense of just about everyone else.

Is Dubai a cool place to visit? Yeah, it was it was cool to experience the grand scale of it all. And it was interesting to see the results of an “if you can dream it, you can build it” mentality. But at the same time, it kind of feels like an adult Disneyland… I’m glad I visited, but a few days were plenty. Before I knew it, I was off on a far grander adventure with the remainder of my stopover in Dubai, as I rented a car and set off for the Sultanate of Oman…

New York City to Kuwait City for $540 on Emirates. Pretty good, right? But upon a closer reading of the fare rules, I realized that this was an even sweeter deal, as it allowed for a free stopover in each direction in either Dubai or Milan. So for a little over $600 with taxes and whatnot, I could visit Dubai, Kuwait and Italy in the same trip? Where do I sign?!?

I jumped at this deal, and so, I set off on planning another exciting adventure! This will be my third time in the Middle East in as many years. The way my flights worked out, I spend 5.5 days in Dubai, 10 hours in Kuwait and a 9 days in Milan. And what am I doing with that time? Well, I was kind of stuck…

Dubai wasn’t exactly high on my list of places to visit. Growing up in Las Vegas, the notion of visiting an “artificial” city wasn’t terribly appealing to me, not to mention the fact that Dubai has an abysmal human rights record. Though the more I read into the Arabian Peninsula, the more I wished that I actually had more time. If time and money were no object, I would have loved to have visited Socotra, an island off the coast of Yemen that is not only safe, but home to an enormous amount of species found nowhere else in the world. But getting there is tough and expensive and it’s a pretty difficult to navigate without a tour.

So instead I’m thinking about going to Oman. Not that I have much time, with only 5 days, so the plan is to spend a couple of days in Dubai before renting a car and heading to the Musandam Peninsula, an exclave of Oman that is separated from the rest of the country by the UAE. It’s only a couple of hours from Dubai and the scenery is supposed to be superb.

Kuwait is a place I would have loved to spend more time. I’m particularly interested in seeing some of the sites from when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait during the first Gulf War, but I don’t think I’ll have time for that. Instead I’ll treat myself to a quick tour of the city.

On my way to Milan, I actually spend a night in Dubai, getting in at 1:30am and leaving again at 9:00am. I think I’ll just chill out at the airport, as I suspect everything will be closed (even nightlife seems to shut down around 2:00am).

As for Milan? I decided pretty quickly that with that time I want to go to Rome. I’ve never been to Italy before and figured that would be a pretty good introduction, especially since I’m a huge history buff. I’ve booked myself a cheap flight from Milan to Rome that leaves, oh, about 2 hours from when my flight arrives from Dubai, which is a little close for comfort, though, fun fact, the airport in Milan will give you a free insurance policy that will pay for a new flight if your plane is delayed and you miss your connection. How cool is that?

When I’m ready to move on from Rome, I can take the train back to Milan, or, perhaps to elsewhere in Italy.

So there you have it! My latest travel plans! They kick off September 4, 2014! What do you think? Have you been to any of these places before? Anything I should know before I go?

It’s a very surreal experience to see a place that you’ve visited in the news like this. To see a place where you feel like you’ve left a little part of yourself on the verge of destruction. Every travel experience is special to me, but the immense kindness shown to me by the Kurds is unmatched throughout the world. These are people who selflessly befriended me everywhere I turned. People who have faced so very much in this world and still lack a permanent state. People who proudly declare that they are from Kurdistan, though no such country technically exists.

Suddenly, the U.S. government is bombing ISIS militants, from the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, who have trapped the Yazidis on a mountain, threatening to kill them off. The militants also started their advance on Erbil, the Kurdish capital and home to some incredible history. It’s a place that I got to know pretty well in my few days there, using it as a base for my time in Kurdistan. Suddenly everyone is sharing stories on Facebook, with a good idea as to who all these people are.

It’s been hard to think back on my time in Iraqi Kurdistan and all the wonderful people I met along the way who are now in danger. Like the Kurdish friend of mine who was pleading on Facebook for Obama to bomb a certain place. Or the friendly Yazidi who I met when I visited Lalish, their holy city, where I shed my shoes and wandered barefoot through the complex. My new friend hailed from Iraqi Kurdistan but these days lived in Ukraine (another great spot to be at the moment…). He showed me around, telling me about life as a Yazidi and showing me the tomb of Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir, considered a central figure in their religion. He was a rarity…as there are less than one million Yazidis out there in the world.

I remember arriving across the border from Turkey, when a Peshmerga soldier took it upon himself to teach me Kurdish, or when another asked to see inside my backpack and then apologized to me for the convenience. I think back to what’s happening to those soldiers now. Those soldiers who have been in the news for the wrong reasons.

You know what kills me about all this? I feel like there’s nothing I can do to help the situation. But thankfully, I found someone who can. Humans of New York, a truly phenomenal Facebook page that features a portrait of an individual and a snippet of their story, has been a real source of inspiration amidst all this news of doom and gloom. A few weeks ago, they set off on a UN-sponsored World Tour and the first stop was Erbil. Here they beautifully highlighted people’s stories, including one particularly poignant one of a Syrian refugee, who had put all his resources into escaping Damascus and coming to Erbil to continue his education. Reading through the images, and the comments that people had left, I was really touched. For the work that HONY was doing was opening up people’s eyes to the fact that no matter where you go in the world, we all want the same things out of life. And people definitely seemed to get that…

It’s heartening to see that people are starting to care about this part of the world. Let’s just hope it keeps up when the news media stops covering it. And please, hope with me that ISIS does not succeed in taking Kurdistan!

Read More About My Adventure in Iraq

• So, What’s it Like to Travel in Iraq?
• Meet Kurdistan: The Other Iraq
• Is it Safe to Travel in Iraq?
• How to Cross From Turkey to Iraqi Kurdistan by Bus
• A Night at an Amusement Park in Iraq (With Video!)
• Inside Saddam Hussein’s House of Horrors 
• Photo Essay: Inside 7,000 Years of History at Erbil Citadel
• Amadiya: A Charming Paradise in Iraqi Kurdistan
• Road Trip Iraq: Kurdistan’s GORGEOUS Hamilton Road
• How to Drive in Iraq

I feel lucky to live in a great big city like New York. I mean, where else could I get to see such an amazing world-class fireworks display for the 4th of July (Independence Day for the USA) against a background of the Manhattan skyline? It’s been a tradition for years now to go and watch the fireworks first hand and this year was no different.

Armed with my new camera, I made my way to Brooklyn Bridge Park, the premiere viewing spot for this year’s fireworks extravaganza, which finally returned to the East River after years in the Hudson. I was nervous though…the weather had been crappy all day. But it was starting to show signs of clearing up, something I hardly believed when I looked towards the Brooklyn Bridge…

Thankfully the skies cleared and before too long, the New York Fire Department had boats going up the East River spewing water as if it were a floating fountain. Some of the streams were even red, white and blue. Very patriotic, eh?

Thankfully, we were treated to a gorgeous sunset. And I gotta tell ya, in the 7 years that I’ve lived in NYC, I still never get tired of that skyline view!

As sunset turned to dusk and the skyline started to light up, I couldn’t help but notice that some buildings were looking awfully patriotic. The Empire State Building donned red, white and blue lighting, but the new World Trade Center almost one-upped them, with the Stars and Stripes of the American flag on its antenna!

See that barge with the Macy’s sign up there? That’s one of three barges that fireworks were launching from! Finally the time arrived for the nationally televised fireworks display, which began with quite a “boom!” And, oh man, it was awesome!

In fact, we were so close that I could feel the sound waves hitting my clothes! It was pretty wild!

This year even the Brooklyn Bridge got in on the action, serving as a fireworks launching point.

What about you?

Are you American? If so, how did you celebrate 4th of July? 

That was my first impression of Jakarta, the bustling capital of Indonesia, where everyone else I’d met left and right throughout the vibrant archipelago had warned me…”there’s nothing to do in Jakarta…just traffic, heat and mosquitoes.” I was determined to give it a chance, having just flown in on Lion Air, only 90 minutes late this time (as opposed to my last domestic flight in Indonesia where AirAsia had me 4 and a half hours late).

Finally, my host arrived, having been stuck in Jakarta’s infamous traffic (an experience I would share a few days later) and before I knew it we were sharing a lovely traditional Javanese dinner. This was a quieter part of town, where my host lived, in the Southeast section of the city. Maybe there was more to Jakarta than everyone said there was…

By day, I went off to explore on my own and actually found getting around Jakarta to be pretty easy. From where I was staying I could catch a local bus (called Mini Metro, which was 3,000 IDR or (US$.0.30) to Blok M Square, where I could hook into the generally fantastic TransJakarta bus system (3,500 IDR (or US$0.35), a bus rapid transit system where you pay in advance and wait in air-conditioned bus stations. The buses have their own dedicated bus lanes too so they beat that infamous Jakarta traffic…well, most of the time.

I found my way to Kota, the historic old city, and while the old colonial buildings are nice and all, I was much more interested in the harbor, a short walk from the terminus of Koridor 1 on the good old TJ (it’s ok if I call it TJ, right?). Here was something you don’t see so often. An actual working harbor, a delicate ballet of cranes, forklifts, and nearly everything you can possible imagine being put on or pulled off ships. Nylon chips. Various chemicals. Fish. Brand new cars (that’s right, I said cars). Crates were everywhere (and sometimes, spilling everywhere). And you know what? It was fascinating!

By night, my host showed me around some of the more atmospheric parts of the city. The fancy neighborhoods where the U.S. Ambassador lives (a rather extravagant looking bunker, which is apparently host to a number of parties), a cool park with sculptures from the different ASEAN nations (Association of SouthEast Asian Nations), art galleries and even a salsa-dancing club!

The side streets we perused were a world away from the sheer madness of the main roads. Here was high society. Here was the school that Barack Obama attended when he was young (which, for the record, is a public school, not an Islamic school as some in the media had reported). Here was a cool city with a definite vibe. It was a view I never would have found through a guidebook.

I became absorbed with wandering, my favorite part of exploring a new city. I took TJ to one of those ubiquitous malls that are so popular throughout Southeast Asia for some lunch before setting off on foot, passing the phallic-like National Monument, the U.S. Embassy (which could easily be confused for a military base and where I was yelled at for taking this photo of some graffiti on an elevated railroad bridge, seen below…) and a really cool Cathedral. Wasn’t Indonesia supposed to be a Muslim country?

It was only when I got that text from my host about where to meet for dinner that I braved the TJ at rush hour. It was only 2 stops to Harmoni Sentral, where I could get back on the proper Koridor. Except, of course, I should get on the wrong bus that would skip Harmoni entirely and end up in the worst traffic jam I have ever seen. A disabled vehicle in one lane caused cars to dive right into that dedicated Busway, rendering it useless. All said and done, it took me 90 minutes to move what was effectively 2km (1.2 miles)! But I finally made it.

“You walked to where?!,” was the disbelief I was greeted with when I reported my day. Yes, Indonesians don’t tend to walk all that much. But I like it. I had gained a certain appreciation for the city through my explorations. Yes, there was bad traffic…really bad traffic. But if you avoid rush hour, you’re gonna be ok. And yes, it was warm, but not really any worse than anywhere else in Indonesia I had been. As for the mosquitoes? I didn’t get a single bite the entire time I was there!

There’s a lot of Jakarta-hatred out there, but, as I learned, if you look at it with open eyes, you might just be surprised at what you find…

So what exactly is JUST GO all about?

What we’re doing is setting out to make a film that proves adventure isn’t simply the province of those with secure jobs and stable finances. To show that, in a time of rising costs and fewer opportunities, when it’s no longer safe to hitchhike across the country in accordance with that On the Road ideal, there’s still adventure to be had.

So we’re embarking on a 5,000 mile journey across America from coast to coast, finding some of the best driving roads we can, avoiding interstates if at all possible, all the while documenting the things we see, the people we meet, and struggles we will inevitably face while trying to spend as little money as we can without missing out on what makes an adventure like this worthwhile.

Particularly, we want to speak directly to our generation as much as possible. It’s been incredibly difficult for many of us to build stable lives, find constant gainful employment that also drives us emotionally, creatively. This lack of stability makes it so hard to take risks; we live on the edge. Well, we want to prove that not only is it possible to take this risk, to have this adventure, but that it may well be necessary for us. The more challenges we face in our day to day life, the more we struggle with finding our place in a society constantly shifting, the more we need opportunities like the one we’ve found here to go and do something meaningful, challenging, and that satisfies this feeling of wanderlust that in some way seems present in us all.

How long do you think the trip will take?

Well, we’re planning on roughly three weeks for this trip, we’ve done extensive research on our expected path, and we hope that we’ll be able to not just breeze through parks and cities, but actually be able to take the time to appreciate them. Of course, anything is possible. Maybe we find a place we really want to explore for more than a day, maybe our car breaks down and we have to find a way to get it fixed. There are so many variables, we just have to accept that as a given and be ready and willing to roll with whatever circumstances come our way.

Where are you planning to stop off along the way?

Oh man, pretty much everywhere. That’s an exaggeration, of course, but really this trip’s course has been plotted with the idea of going to the places that seem most interesting to us, especially within the context of driving; we want to find roads that stir something in us, that remind us that driving is more than just a way to get from place to place conveniently and quickly. We’re beginning in Seattle, and we’re heading east and a bit north to the tip of Montana, then making our way straight south into Utah. From there, we’ll head east once more through Colorado, eventually making our way south, crossing the border into Arkansas before heading up north following the Appalachians. There are too many landmarks to list, honestly.

Why did you opt to set a budget of $100 per person per week?

The average American spends $150 a week on food alone. One of the seemingly greatest barriers to any adventure, of course, is financial. We want to prove that this is a hurdle than can be overcome. As such, we’ve set a bar low enough that it could be met by almost anyone. To clarify, that one hundred we’re spending per person per week includes both gas and food money, along with gear, but we’re not going to miss out on any experiences along the way.

What are your plans for saving money?

There are obviously a number of things we can do; I’ll focus on three of them here. First, we’re camping instead of staying in hotels/motels. This is pretty much necessary if you’re looking to do a trip like ours – hotel prices obviously add up, and a tent is a one-time expenditure. Obviously, there are costs involved with camping as well, but they’re nowhere near those involved with hotels.

Secondly, we’re going as a group. With four people, many of the costs can be split so that the burden isn’t so heavy on each individual. For example, gas will be end up totaling around or over five hundred dollars, which for any one of us individually would be prohibitive, but that cost split four ways makes it a much more tenable proposition. The same goes for the price of the tent and car repairs/upkeep.

Then, we’ll be cooking for ourselves as opposed to spending money at too many restaurants along the way. Rice and Beans with dried or smoked proteins are much more cost effective, and we’re prepared to cook over open flame as many of the nights as possible.

Did you guys grow up going camping and stuff?

A few of us did, which certainly helps, but I don’t think it’s a requirement. Obviously having experience pitching tents in the dark and making campfires comes in handy, but they’re skills that can be learned relatively easily if you put your mind to it. Really, a camping/outdoors background is great and useful and I’m extremely happy we can count an Eagle Scout amongst our number, but I don’t think the lack of such a background should be seen as a barrier to entry for this sort of journey. More important than the previous experience is our preparation and the logistical planning we’re doing now. Being prepared means more than having been a boy scout.

Why are you opting to forgo the use of smart phones?

Smart Phones are awesome. I use mine in life all the time. It keeps me tuned in to my friends, keeps me abreast of current events, and is an incredibly potent communicative tool. But part of the point of this is cutting ties, momentarily, and searching for an experience more purely primal, more about our present and our immediate experiences. Constant contact with a world we’re familiar with would somewhat serve to undermine that goal.

And partly, at least for me, the turning off of my smart phone is kind of exciting, kind of exhilarating, really because I haven’t ever done it before, not since I became accustomed to the use of Smart Phones as a fact of daily life. I’m looking forward to the newness of an older way of living.

How will you keep from getting lost? Or is that just part of the adventure?

We’ll have an atlas. Hopefully we’ll remember how to read it.

Why do this as a documentary? What do you hope that people will gain from it?

As mentioned at the start, part of this is about more than just going on a cool trip. It was the fact that, when we first talked with other people about this trip we were planning, we ran across the same response “I wish I could do that.” Inevitably, then, the person would list all of the reasons why they couldn’t. Which is fair, which is understandable. We just feel that sometimes it truly is worth it to go ahead and recognize those reasons, then ignore them. There will always be reasons to avoid doing what is truly worthwhile, what is challenging (whatever that means for each person – it doesn’t have to be a road trip. It could be, but it could also be something like pursuing a new job or taking a chance in your personal life), and we want to show with a rather dramatic example exactly what we as people can accomplish without waiting for ideal circumstances.

So, when do you think we’ll all be able to see the film?

We’re shooting for a release date in early 2015, but we won’t be able to know for sure until we’ve taken the trip!

Given their smart phone blackout during the trip, there won’t be any social media updates along the way, but you can find JUST GO on Facebook and Twitter to learn when you’ll be able to see the film for yourself!

See, it started like any other day in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (a city I really like, by the way). I’d spent the past wonderful week hanging out with fellow bloggers Talon (and his son Tigger) of 1 Dad 1 Kid and Juno of Runaway Juno and was finally moving along after 3 days of threatening to leave. Penang, with its UNESCO World Heritage Site of Georgetown seemed like a good bet. I was armed with information from my local friend who hosted me about how to get a bus there so what could possibly go wrong?

It was only in the wee hours of the night that I asked my friend if he could recommend any bus companies. “They’re all the same to me. Though Transnasional has a good reputation,” he told me. Oh, how I’d come to resent not listening to him…

The Bus Station Maze

Juno accompanied me to the bus station to find a ticket. Puduraya Station (also known as Pudu Sentral), has to be one of the most confusing bus stations I’ve ever been to though. Immediately after walking in, you’re assaulted by touts and a ticket counter is nowhere to be seen. Turns out, the ticket counters are upstairs and across a parking lot. Weird, right?

As you peruse the counters of the various companies, they holler out to you, trying to get your business. We enquired with several different companies about time and price, though it seemed nearly everyone kept directing us back to their one competitor’s window (#42, which I would highly suggest you avoid). I did check with Transnasional but their next bus wasn’t until 4:00pm (and it was 12:30pm). But, alas, I settled for Window #42, which two other people had now directed me to. They had a 2:00pm bus.

The Waiting Game

After lunch, I bid adieu to Juno and headed for my assigned platform, #22. 2:00pm rolls around and, guess what? There’s no bus! 2:30 rolls around. Still nothing. Then another bus pulls in but it’s not mine. I’m not alone here as there are a few others also trying to go to Penang, but when they tried to ask for assistance from the guys running around with walkie-talkies, they just pushed us away.

Rumor has it the bus is leaving at 3. And soon thereafter, a man with a walkie-talkie motions for us to follow him. We’re led out of the terminal and up into the street to a bus that matched the ID number on the ticket. I had just gotten done putting my bag under the bus when a different guy asks, “Where you go?”

Our “Bus”

“Penang,” I replied. “Penang, no,” he shouts, “This bus to jetty! No Penang!” I assumed he meant the ferry, as Penang is an island, though when I bought my ticket I was very specific about going to Penang Island, not to Butterworth on the mainland. Not to mention the fact that I had no clue what time the last ferry left and I wasn’t the only one in this situation as another pair of locals looked just as confused as I did.

This was our bus…the one we had tickets for, yet it wasn’t going where we were going! Confused and bewildered, I followed one of my fellow passengers back to the ticket counter…through the whole building, up the stairs and across the parking lot.

A New Bus

When we finally reached the window, the woman glanced at our tickets and then shouted at a woman, handing off our tickets to her and motioning us to quickly follow her. Down the stairs and out a side door, she led us, thrusting our tickets back at us without missing a step. Now, we were back on the street. The woman pointed towards the driveway where buses were entering the station and said, “Penang.” She just left us there looking confused.

But we weren’t confused for long! A man with a walkie-talkie asked us where we were going and took our tickets. I couldn’t help but notice that everyone else there also had similar tickets. Then the man flagged down a passing bus that was virtually empty and had originated in Singapore. We boarded and watched him pay the driver to take us. I couldn’t help but wonder if the company was having an “Oh, shit!” moment in getting us on this seemingly random bus that was passing, now at 3:30pm.

Luxury…or not…

Onboard the seats were plush. They had these giant recliners that supposedly also gave you a massage (except it didn’t work). Outlets (that didn’t work). Internet (that didn’t work). Personal TVs (that didn’t work). And overhead lights for reading (that didn’t work). But, you know what? I got to Penang in one piece…on the same day, even! And I learned one very important lesson….

Always listen to local advice!